Written by Lucy Hall and reviewed, fact-checked and signed off by a SocialDay editor before publication. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy. Spotted something wrong? Tell the newsroom.

A YouTube Culture & Trends study shows 72% of uploaders use AI on video, but most aren't chasing productivity. They're inserting themselves into content to explore emotion, passion and who they are.

72% of uploaders (surveyed video posters aged 14 to 44) say they use AI on videos or images, according to YouTube's Culture & Trends team research of major generative video trends and surveys with NRG asking thousands of people about their interests and attitudes toward generative AI. That figure alone suggests generative video is past experimental. What matters is what people are doing with it.

Rather than using it strictly for utility, people use it to insert themselves into content and play at being the director of their own lives. More than two-thirds of people who post AI videos say they have featured themselves in their content.

The insight here is straightforward: when the barrier to video creation drops, the first instinct isn't to automate away the self. It's to put the self front and centre in contexts that were previously out of reach. That changes what generative AI is for, and where social marketers should look when they think about what this technology unlocks.

Many popular trends enable uploaders to weave AI imagery into a visual record of their personal identity exploration.

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